Brian Ashley Jones thrives in creative Nashville scene

NASHVILLE, TENN. – Brian Ashley Jones has spent enough time as a Nashville-based singer, songwriter and guitarist to feel as if he's in the music business for the long haul.

By DAN ARMONAITISdan.armonaitis@shj.com

Editor's note: Arts and entertainment writer Dan Armonaitis recently spent a few days in Nashville, Tenn. This is the second in a series of stories about people from the Spartanburg area who are having an impact in the Music City.

NASHVILLE, TENN. – Brian Ashley Jones has spent enough time as a Nashville-based singer, songwriter and guitarist to feel as if he's in the music business for the long haul.Music “is what I'm supposed to be doing, and I can't imagine doing anything else,” Jones said on a recent Thursday morning. “And most every other songwriter or musician I know who's done it this long pretty much has the same attitude. … We just all feel compelled to do it, even when it defies logic.”As he spoke, Jones was sitting in a coffeehouse near his home on the Music City's east side.While the neighborhood known as East Nashville lacks the glitziness of Lower Broadway, Music Row or other nearby tourist destinations, it's been bursting at the seams with creative types for the past decade.“If you're really serious about music, this is where you want to be,” said Jones, who grew up in Spartanburg and attended Spartanburg Day School.Jones has lived in East Nashville since 2002. Before that, he had shuffled back and forth between Music City and Atlanta for several years.“Living here, there are so many opportunities to collaborate with people that I admire and respect,” Jones said. “There's just so much talent here — so many great songwriters and other musicians. … It's just such a creative space to be in. I love being here.”In Nashville, Jones has done everything from session instrumental work to writing and performing his own material.

As a solo artist, he has a new album, “Out of the City,” due out in June. Like his previous works, it's a genre-defying collection informed by everything from traditional country and bluegrass to blues and rock 'n' roll.Jones said the eclectic nature of his music can be traced back to the artists he enjoyed as a youth, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Spartanburg's own Marshall Tucker Band.“Most of the bands I grew up listening to had a lot of lateral movement stylistically, which is something you don't get as much of with modern bands,” Jones said. “… They weren't afraid to do a blues song one minute and a country song the next.“To me, that keeps things interesting. So that's what I try to do — keep it all somewhat cohesive but move it around a little bit stylistically — if only to keep myself entertained.”Of course, Jones isn't the only person being entertained by his music. His acclaimed 2008 release, “Courier,” included a swampy instrumental called “Pull 'em Up,” which was featured in the PBS television series “Road Trip Nation.”And evidence of the respect he commands in Americana circles can be found in him being listed as a featured act for this week's taping of “Music City Roots,” a nationally syndicated radio program hosted by singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale. The episode will air locally on WGWG (88.3 FM) at 8 p.m. on an upcoming Monday, according to the station's operations manager and program director Jeff Powell.“Doing stuff like that is just great,” Jones said of his “Music City Roots” appearance. “It's those moments that you try to savor and say, ‘Wow, this is the reward for all the hard work.' ”Jones said another such moment was when he and his band got to do a small tour with roots music legend Delbert McClinton a couple of years ago.“Being able to play in front of nice, appreciative crowds like that and open for one of your heroes is the stuff you envision when you get into this business,” Jones said. “I'm always really thankful for those moments, because there's certainly a lot that leads up to those things.”Jones has been playing music professionally for about 20 years, but it wasn't until he returned to Nashville in 2002 that he was able to support himself exclusively through music. He now tours internationally.

“It's a struggle in the beginning,” Jones said. “But things get easier in some ways as time goes on, because you know more people and, hopefully, you've proven yourself a little bit along the way. But the reality is that it is a young person's game, so there's a point of diminishing returns with all that.“I find music to be a fascinating business unlike any other — I always have — just because the ups and downs are extreme.”Jones considers himself a bit of a latecomer as a musician, having not taken his first guitar lesson until his senior year of high school. Before that, he'd been a soccer junkie.“As I was getting toward the end of high school, I had had a couple of injuries and the writing was on the wall that I probably wasn't going to pursue being a professional athlete,” Jones said. “I was already a music fan, so I decided to start playing guitar.“… I spent a lot of hours and lost a lot of sleep just jamming along with old records. I would go out and see bands regularly, and I'd always keep my eyes glued to the guitarists and see what they were doing.”Jones said he has fond memories of going to see such well-known Spartanburg musicians as David Ezell, Matthew Knights, Jim Denton and Sander Morrison perform in the late 1980s and early '90s.“Those guys were already on the road and traveling and doing things that I had only dreamed of at that point, and that was very inspiring,” Jones said.On Memorial Day weekend, Jones will join a couple of other former Spartanburg residents who have had success in the music business since moving to Nashville. Jones, Marshall Chapman and Peter Cooper will perform “in the round” on May 25 at Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant in Franklin, Tenn., just south of the Music City.“I've done several shows with Peter over the years, including one at The Showroom in Spartanburg,” Jones said. “But this will be the first time I've actually played with Marshall, even though I've known her for quite some time. They're both amazing songwriters, so I'm really looking forward to it.”